A Million Indians Face Long Waits For Green Cards
India-West News Desk
WASHINGTON, DC – More than one million Indians now wait in employment-based immigration backlogs, data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services show. It indicates many highly skilled professionals from India face potentially decades-long waits to get a green card due to a per-country limit and the low annual quota.
Forbes magazinde succinctly reported that over 1.2 million Indians, including dependents, are waiting in the first, second and third employment-based green card categories.
The National Foundation for American Policy in its analysis of USCIS data said,
51,249 principals are in the employment-based first preference, also known as EB-1. NFAP estimated an additional 92,248 dependents for a total of 143,497 Indians in the first preference backlog. EB-1 includes workers with extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers and multinational executives or managers.
There are 419,392 in the employment-based second preference, also known as EB-2. NFAP estimates an additional 419,392 dependents for a total of 838,784 Indians in the second preference backlog. EB-2 includes professionals holding an advanced degree and persons with exceptional ability in the sciences, arts, or business.
USCIS data from 2020 suggest that the Indian backlog in the EB-2 category rose by more than 240,000 or 40% in approximately three years.
In the employment based third preference are 138,581 people. This EB-3 category includes skilled workers and “members of the professions whose jobs require at least a baccalaureate degree.”
In 2020, Forbes pointed out, the Congressional Research Service estimated the backlog for Indians in the top three employment-based green card categories would reach 2,195,795 individuals by FY 2030 and take 195 years to eliminate the backlog.
Indians have suffered the brunt of the law’s impact, Forbes said. Due to the per-country limit, only 7,820 Indian immigrants received employment-based green cards in the EB-2 category in FY 2015, even though employers submitted tens of thousands of green card applications for Indians years earlier than individuals from other countries who received green cards that year.
In 2022, Republican Senator Charles Grassley supported by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, blocked a reform that would have ended the long waits for many employment-based immigrants.
Daljit (Dean)Singh
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This is a very sad story of a country which boasts of becoming a world power. A majority of its people are ultra-nationalists, beat their chests and glorify their government which cannot provide any meaningful jobs for its highly qualified and gifted people. There is widespread under-employment and unemployment of young people with college degrees in STEM disciplines from respectable colleges and universities. They are unable to find any minimum wage jobs. It is very difficult for them to maintain their self-worth and dignity essential for living a productive life. Due to the high unemployment rate, they are postponing their marriages, dependent and living with their elderly parents and relatives. The most disheartening aspect of this phenomenon is the fact that many of their parents are waiting for any help returns from their children in their advancing age and distant hope for any social security and health insurance. No wonder millions of Indians wish to escape the brutality of the environment and escape the country as soon as possible. This news is a solid reference point.
April 16, 2024